John Coltrane

Coltrane pulls off an epic aural poem to man's place in God's plan. A Love Supreme goes from free jazz to hard bop to genre-of-one gospel music, and yet he brings you into the moving work instead of using the piece as an exercise in ego. The deluxe edition offers alternate takes that are fascinating to hear a few times but add little emotional impact to the complete experience of the brilliant album.

John Coltrane's A Love Supreme is one of the most compelling, spiritual testimonies in the
history of jazz. The four-part suite, originally issued in 1965, can't be divorced from its
cultural moment -- based on the cadences of Bible psalms and the tenor saxman's own free
verse, the album reflects the jazz world's growing embrace of Eastern ideas as well as the
tumult of the American black-consciousness movement. But unlike many long-fo... More >